Analyze a financial statement
By default, the Financial Statements grid displays a Summary view of the data in the underlying financial database. From this high-level overview, you can use the dimensions to drill down into the lower levels of detail, to analyze the information and better understand what is happening in your business.
A dimension is a level in your statement and an entity is a value within a dimension. For example, a dimension is Country and the entities are Australia, the UK and the USA. The panel on the left of the statements grid contains a list of the dimensions in the underlying financial database, along with any custom dimensions.
Custom dimensions are new dimensions created by users who have permission to manage financial statements. They add a level of detail that was not in the original dataset.
The key actions you can take are summarized in the table below. See links on the right to other common analysis tasks, such as select and focus on data.
Add up to three dimensions as levels in a statement to create a ‘nested’ view of the information. This action allows you to view the contribution of each entity within the overall performance. Details for all the entities in the dimension display as additional rows in the grid. However, the values in the total rows, such as gross profit, remain at the summary level. For example, add the Country dimension as a level to view details for each country.  | |
Click a dimension to move into the Analytics grid, where you can select one or more entities, then return to the Financial Statements grid, to view the filtered financial information. This action allows you to analyze the performance of one or more specific entities in a dimension. For example, click the Country dimension, select and focus on a particular country, then return to the statement to view financial information for that country only.  While you are in the Analytics grid, you have the option to use the analysis tools to drill deeper into your data, all the way down into the transactions. For example, you can apply additional filters, to perform a more in-depth analysis. | |
Use a dimension to transform the statement into matrix format. This action allows you to view statements for different entities side-by-side in a ‘matrix’ format. Values for the entities in the dimension display as additional columns in the grid. For example, select the Country dimension, then select three countries to view financial information for those countries in separate columns in the grid, alongside the combined information in the Total column. |